Law has become an integral part of everyone’s lives, said Chief Justice T.S. Sivagnanam, and went on to address students on how different fields of law can turn into lucrative careers.

Nobody imagined, even 35 years back, that the study of law would be a priority...Earlier, a person could spend his entire life without feeling the need to consult a lawyer. Times have changed. Law has become an integral part of every man’s life. If that is so, you need to be proud to be students of law, proud to be future lawyers, said the Chief Justice of Calcutta High Court.

Justice Sivagnanam was the chief guest at the silver jubilee celebration of The West Bengal National University of Juridical Sciences, Kolkata, held at the Town Hall on Thursday.

“Sports law is a lucrative field. One of my former juniors went to London for his master’s, and he now advises a big football team in Barcelona,” said the Chief Justice.

He said the football team’s legal team consists of 120 professionals, which includes agreements, endorsements by players, jerseys and advertisements.

Earlier during the programme, Justice Tapabrata Chakraborty of Calcutta High Court said legal education has embraced sweeping changes with the advent of globalisation.

The changes are not only restricted to the curriculum but also extend to teaching techniques, said Justice Chakraborty.

“In due recognition of this fact, surely, that law is a multidisciplinary subject, and these teaching techniques allow these students liberty to branch into various career options. It is like policy making, research, mediation and so on...” he said.

Justice Chakraborty said that during his college days, the aim was to pass and practise in a court. “But this thinking has changed. Now the participation of law graduates is not only restricted to the corridors of the high court, district court or other district judiciaries, but the spectrum, ambit has widened,” he said.

He also said lawyers are espouses of the causes of the downtrodden or the persons who cannot articulate their grievances.

Justice Soumen Sen said, irrespective of whether one is studying law or not, one should know the Constitution.

“The thrill in law lies in the court. How can you turn the tables to your favour when the judge is extremely hostile? It was a battle of intellect,” said Justice Sen.

To commemorate the silver jubilee celebrations, the university released a Special Cover with ‘WBNUJS Stamp’.

“Today, we do not just count the years but we celebrate the journey of ideas, innovation, and unwavering commitment to excel in legal education,” said vice-chancellor Nirmal Kanti Chakrabarti.

NUJS was founded in 1999, proposed as a centre of excellence and a place where academic scholarship would meet practical training and national-level institutional excellence, said the vice-chancellor.

“Looking forward, I hope that WBNUJS will continue to evolve, expand our research, venture more into multidisciplinary and interdisciplinary research, deepen our global partnerships with foreign universities and integrate emerging science and technology in the legal education and knowledge creation,” said the vice chancellor.

Other guests of honour were Justice Apurba Sinha Ray of the Calcutta High Court, Moloy Ghatak, minister-in-charge, law, judicial & labour department, Ashok Kumar, chief postmaster general, West Bengal Circle.

The university’s registrar, Raja Chakraborty, delivered the vote of thanks.